Skynet Stablecoin Spotlight Report: H1 2025

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Stablecoins are no longer a niche crypto experiment; they’re becoming a core piece of our financial system. Currently, stablecoins represent approximately 8.9% of the overall crypto market. However, with this increased stablecoin use comes the need for more robust security measures, as stablecoins are vulnerable to de-pegs, code bugs, and more. In our 2025 Stablecoin Report, we look at the current stablecoin landscape, vulnerabilities that affect stablecoins, and how CertiK’s Skynet Security Score can help evaluate stablecoin security.

Executive Summary

Stablecoin adoption grew significantly in the first half of 2025, cementing its role as vital financial infrastructure. This expansion brought increased scrutiny of security, risk, and regulatory compliance. CertiK’s Skynet rating system has developed a comprehensive framework specifically for assessing stablecoin activity from a security and risk standpoint.

The first half of 2025 highlighted a central tension in the maturing stablecoin market. While institutional adoption accelerated and on-chain activity surged , the nature of risk shifted dramatically. Two major forces are now reshaping the landscape: the escalating threat from operational security failures at centralized platforms and a global wave of regulation that is actively separating compliant issuers from non-compliant ones.

Key Takeaways

Stablecoins cement mainstream status even as risk disparities widen: The first half of 2025 pushed stablecoins deeper into the financial mainstream: aggregate supply climbed from $204 billion to $252 billion, and monthly settlement volumes rose by 43 percent to $1.39 trillion. CertiK’s six-factor Skynet Stablecoin framework shows that this headline growth masks widening gaps in security posture, compliance, and operational risk.

Skynet score trends reveal standouts in H1 2025 led by USDT, USDC, and PYUSD: USDT still dominates on liquidity, especially on Tron. USDC closed the gap through a MiCA license, a successful IPO, and a supply jump to $61 billion. PYUSD vaulted into the top tier after doubling its float via a Solana integration and a 3.7 percent reward program. RLUSD, USDG, and FDUSD round out the top rankings as well.

Operational lapses, not code flaws, drive a record $2.47 billion in H1 losses: A record 344 crypto security incidents erased $2.47 billion, with key-management failures and liquidity-pool logic bugs eclipsing base-layer contract exploits. The Bybit wallet breach alone cost roughly $1.5 billion, while FDUSD’s brief drop to $0.76 and swift re-peg highlighted its resilience and the stabilizing effect of transparent reserves.

Regulators separate compliant giants from sidelined laggards: The U.S. STABLE and GENIUS bills, together with full EU MiCA enforcement, are bifurcating the market into license-ready leaders and non-compliant holdouts. Banks such as Société Générale, Santander, and Bank of America, and payment networks like Visa and Stripe, accelerated stablecoin pilots, signaling that regulated USD-backed coins are moving onto traditional finance rails.

Yield-bearing and RWA-backed coins will grow, but so will their security risks: Real-world-asset-backed and yield-bearing models are on track to capture up to 10 percent of a projected > $300 billion market by year-end. To earn and maintain top Skynet scores, issuers must now master a new slate of risks spanning off-chain custody, investment-strategy execution, and DeFi composability.

Download the full report here!

The projects showcased in this report can be found on Skynet’s Stablecoin Leaderboard.